


Equinox

by kaientai



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Asshole-kawa, F/M, Fluff, Hanamaki is ok, Mattsun is your new bff, NASA, Oikawa and Iwaizumi are not on good terms, Space nerds
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-15
Updated: 2017-06-15
Packaged: 2018-11-13 17:07:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11189565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaientai/pseuds/kaientai
Summary: All you wanted was for Mr. Oikawa to treat you equally. But unbeknownst to you, Oikawa doesn't know how to convey his feelings in other ways besides being a pompous jerk.





	Equinox

**Author's Note:**

> I just watched Hidden Figures recently and it was SO good so here I am, making a oneshot out of it. Sort of. But hey just imagine you're Katherine, Ushijima is John Glenn, and Oikawa's Paul. The reader doesn't necessarily have to be colored, like Katherine is. But since we all know that the reason Paul is an asshole to Katherine at first is because she's a colored woman, I'm just gonna make Oikawa an asshole because ~~he actually likes you~~ he's jealous of your mathematical prowess. 
> 
> I'm just gonna make myself clear, this isn't a recreation of the movie. I just got inspired by it and made a fic out of the general idea. I changed a lot of the major things, so if you've seen the movie, you're obviously gonna spot lots of differences. But with that out of the way, here it is.

Mr. Oikawa is an asshole.

You're a month into your new assignment in the Space Task Group, and you're only beginning to acknowledge this now. In hindsight, you want to laugh because Hanamaki, the one you presumed was the secretary for the task group, suggested that Mr. Iwaizumi, the director, was the one you should be afraid of. That is not the case at all. In a room full of men who always seem to sneer at you because they don't trust the geometrical calculations of a woman, Mr. Iwaizumi is the only one that's been remotely nice to you. Well, Matsukawa, the man whose desk is directly in front of yours, does show his kindness in his own weird way, too, but that's really not the point.

Frankly, you're used to men looking down on you. Getting into NASA is already a hard journey in itself, but getting into NASA when you're a woman is five times more difficult. If it weren't for your otherworldly mathematical prowess, you wouldn't have a chance in getting into your original workplace in the West Area Computers. 

They say that first impressions last, so you made sure that you presented yourself respectably during your first day of reassignment. However, when you're introduced to your head engineer, Mr. Tooru Oikawa, you already knew your first impression on him will definitely last for a good while. 

He's extremely good-looking, you're not going to deny that. Chocolate brown hair slicked into perfection with the same colored eyes to match would make any female swoon. And he might as well be the smartest person in the room  ~~apart from yourself~~  if he's the head engineer. But on your first day, alone, Mr. Oikawa just introduced to you a whole new level of scorn and disdain.

At the time, you figure that he was just stressed. They just recently fired a computer and all the follow-ups and double-checks for the calculations to be used in the Redstone Rocket's first launch into orbit are all being shoved onto his plate. You're naturally an understanding person, so when Mr. Oikawa looks at you condescendingly before dumping all the calculation files on your desk, you don't think ill of it. When you study the papers, see that some of the details are obscured with black ink, and he tells you that it's 'classified information' that you're well off not knowing, you feel the slightest bit irked, but you don't say anything.

It's just the first day, after all.

The days turn to weeks; the weeks into a month, and Mr. Oikawa is still not showing any signs of improvement in the respect department. This morning, he gave you another batch of files with even more of the information blotted out with a marker. "Work with what you can see. The rest is classified, and you don't have clearance," he said. You nearly threw the files in his face. Desperately, you restrained yourself from shouting, "How can I  _work with what I can see_  when you blackened all the important details?" 

You knew that Mr. Oikawa saw the expression of pure resentment on your face, but he didn't say anything about it, and simply walked away. When you began scanning the pile he handed, you hear Matsukawa snicker in front of you. With the frustration towards your boss still fresh in your heart, being laughed at by Matsukawa doesn't do anything to ease your vexation. If there is a God, why would He give you a prick of a head engineer and an annoying desk-neighbor in the same workspace? This royally sucked. Even if being the new computer for the Space Task Group is a glorifying job, you'd give up anything just to be back in the West Area Computers. 

"Oikawa's never been this hard on a computer, you know," Matsukawa tells you.

You're reviewing the numbers Oikawa gave, but you're not really absorbing any of the limited information in front of you. So, you decide to entertain Matsukawa. "I must be  _really_  special, then."

He laughs. "Special in a way even I didn't expect."

You tear your eyes away from the files to ask him what the hell he meant by that, but Matsukawa's already standing up, coffee mug in hand and a teasing grin on his face. He makes his way over to the coffee machine before you could utter a word.

 

* * *

 

When you actually meet Ushijima in person, you're more flabbergasted with his appearance than honoured to be in his presence. Led by Mr. Iwaizumi and Mr. Oikawa, the Shiratorizawa Seven, a group of NASA’s first soon-to-be astronauts, are having some sort of welcoming rally, and you're at the near end of the hand-shaking line with Matsukawa. It's beginning to bother you how you're settling for him as your constant company now, but you tell yourself that it's only normal since your desks are practically connected. 

You knew that Ushijima would be tall, but this is just ridiculous. He even has the right bulk to make up for his towering height. You heard that he was a marine fighter pilot, but that alone doesn't give his body justice. He must've worked out a lot in his teenage years. When he takes your hand in his, you think that this must be how Belle felt when the Beast held her hand for the first time. The thought makes you blush, and you hope that Ushijima doesn't notice. 

He does.

"You shouldn't be flustered around me. We're going to be working together, after all," is all he says.

You can hear Matsukawa snickering beside you, and there was only so much you could do to keep yourself from kicking him in the shins right now. 

Ushijima shakes hands with you longer than he does with the other employees. You take notice of this, and little do you know, Oikawa does, too.

 

* * *

 

"Mr. Iwaizumi wants you to confirm launch and landing for the tests," Mr. Oikawa tells you before roughly plopping another set of files onto your desk. His tone is sharp enough to cut.

You scrutinize the fresh batch and sigh. "Mr. Oikawa, this is all indecipherable. You can't expect me to work well with numbers I cannot see."

He gives you a domineering stare. "Those numbers have been confirmed by a couple of engineers in this department, myself included. This is more of a...dummy check."

He says that last part in a way that suggests that he thinks you're a complete simpleton. Actually, it doesn't just suggest, it  _insists_. And before you could finally lash out at him, Oikawa walks back to his desk, and Matsukawa offers you one of the umaibōs that he snacks on with a please-calm-down expression on his face. You snuff out the flare of irritation that's igniting in your chest with a long exhale. You sit back down onto your chair and take the umaibō that Matsukawa offered you. 

Since Oikawa's desk is just directly behind Matsukawa's, you lower the volume of your voice to a minimum. "I know I should've asked sooner, but is he like this to all the computers that get assigned here?"

Another pesky smile graces his lips. "Not at all."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

He hums. "It depends."

This time, you don't ponder on what Matsukawa means by his words because somehow you're starting to get what he's been trying to suggest all this time. And you're not the least bit amused with it.

You chomp what remains of your snack, and begin working on Oikawa's 'dummy check'. When you spot more than five errors in the trajectories alone, you stand up and grab a chalk from Matsukawa's pencil holder. He raises an eyebrow at that. 

"What are you gonna do with that?" 

You flash him a genuine smile, and raise your voice. "I'm gonna prove to  _some people_ that the confirmation of a couple of engineers isn't worth anything if their calculations are still wrong." 

Matsukawa  _laughs_  and Oikawa snaps his head into your direction. His eyes are stone cold when they glare at you, but you're already sashaying towards the humongous blackboard in the room. You climb the ladder at the side and begin writing off a revised version of your boss's failed assessment. 

When you finish, you marvel at your work, but you can still feel Oikawa's hazel eyes boring into your back.

 

* * *

 

Two months later, Mr. Oikawa doesn't pull off anything of the antagonistic nature on you much anymore; with 'accidentally' spilling some of his coffee on your shirt a week ago being the most extreme case lately. Mr. Iwaizumi doesn't make him blot out details on files they make you double-check anymore, and you and Matsukawa are growing closer as friends now. Recently, you just found out that he lived only a few streets away from you. Since then, he's started to drive you to and from work. But despite of your more tightly knit bond, there's still one question that always teases the seams of your mind.

"What do you really do?" You ask Matsukawa when you get into the passenger seat of his car. It's an old, beat up Corolla with manual window cranks. But even if it looks like it's seen better days, his car is still functional and faintly smells like fresh apples.

He slides a key into ignition and his Corolla growls with life. He shoots you his typical, slant-eyed stare. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what do you always do in the office? If you're not in your desk annoying me while I'm running computations in my brain, you're always up in Mr. Iwaizumi's loft, discussing God-knows-what." You shrug. "I figured you were someone important."

Matsukawa gives you a soft chortle. "You're already a beast with analytical geometry. How can your deduction skills be worth something, too? You're too much, I tell you."

"That doesn't really answer my question, now does it?"

He laughs, and you realize that he's very fond of doing so. Matsukawa is such a cheerful person despite his intimidating demeanor, it makes you question if he's even real because no one laughs as frequently as he does.

"I'm one of the engineers," he admits before he starts driving out of the parking lot.

"I knew it. So that means you work hand-in-hand with Mr. Iwaizumi and my  _favorite_  person in the world, Mr. Oikawa, right? Should I start calling you Mr. Matsukawa now, too?"

He eases the vehicle onto the main road before speaking. "You're real funny, but seriously, call me Mattsun. My friends call me that."

"Oh, so I have the privilege to be your friend now?"

"You've always been a friend to me."

You chuckle before leaving him to concentrate on driving. The sky is already dark since everyone in the task group has suffered the misfortune of staying late to work on more adjustments to some minor calculations. You can't have Matsukawa —Mattsun, you remind yourself— getting into an accident just because you're being a chatterbox.

You're immensely grateful to be dismissed at ten o'clock because if you had to plot another coordinate, you might have vomited. But, repulsive details aside, you're beginning to actually like being in the Space Task Group. Ever since you showcased your expertise with your calculations two months ago, you seemed to have earned the respect of your all-male colleagues. Now, Mattsun, Mr. Oikawa, and Mr. Iwaizumi aren't the only people that acknowledge your existence. 

"You know, Oikawa isn't really that terrible person he makes you think he is," Mattsun suddenly speaks.

Your brow quirks at his sudden words, but you let him continue talking.

"We've been friends since high school —me, him, Iwaizumi, and Hanamaki. It's Oikawa that's always had a knack for space. Well, back then it was just aliens, but things change. He's come to love space as a whole by the time we all reached college. He took up Aerospace Engineering, I took Mechanical Engineering, and Hanamaki took Astronomy."

When he pauses for a while, you ask, "What about Mr. Iwaizumi?"

The dismal sigh that he lets out makes you look at him. Mattsun is staring at the road, but his eyes seem to be elsewhere.

"Supposedly, he was going to take up law. He even told us he wanted to have Political Science for a pre-law. Iwaizumi's parents had him go to another country just to study. We weren't exactly keen with the idea that one of our friends is going away, and Oikawa was the one who didn't take the news lightly the most. He and Iwaizumi have been best friends since they were kids."

An absentminded smile finds its way on Mattsun's face, as if he's recalling a pleasant memory, but it's immediately replaced with a grimace when he continues. "They had a big fight before Iwaizumi left, and I don't really know if they had the chance to make up after that. But we carried on with our education even if one of our friends wasn't with us. We all graduated with flying colors."

" _Flying colors_ , really?" You joke.

Mattsun pulls over in a lay-by, and laughs. "Yes. Well, I nearly failed Thermodynamics, but yeah. Flying colors."

"And why did you decide to pull over so suddenly?"

"This is going to be a really long story and I'd rather not have my attention divided between that and driving. We can't have our most promising computer dying in a car crash when Ushijima hasn't even been launched into space, right?" He chuckles before killing the engine and rolling down the window to his side of the car.

You smack his arm playfully and do the same. "Continue, Mr. Matsukawa."

He laughs again and does as told.

"Anyway, the three of us got into NASA pretty quickly. We were all assigned to the Space Task Group under the director, Mr. Nobuteru Irihata. Things went really smoothly during our first few years. The three of us each became one of the official engineers of the department, and Mr. Irihata was dropping hints that he might pass on his role as head director of the task group to Oikawa when he retires."

"Out of the three of us, I can safely say that Oikawa's the most gifted with knowledge about space itself; not just aerospace engineering. Out of the three of us, he's the most passionate. And I know that passion can beat talent and education any day, but Oikawa has all three. He's an aeronautic monster, I tell you. He can glean all the information on how anything works with just five minutes of studying an object. He's more....scientifically inclined. But like all prodigies, Oikawa has a fatal flaw. And that one thing he's terrible at is the same thing that got you into our department in the first place."

Mattsun looks at you, and you process his words for a few moments. The one thing he's terrible at is the thing that got you into the task group..? Suddenly, you recall the begrudging stares he gives you when Mr. Iwaizumi praises your calculations; the sharp scent of a broad line marker wafting through the air as he lividly scraped it on top of letters and numbers your eyes aren't supposed to see; his brazen words; his harsh treatment—

"He's an engineer at NASA and he sucks at analytic geometry?" The question leaves your lips in a too-forward tone, and you hope Mattsun won't think badly of it.

Mattsun shrugs. "Well, in retrospect,  _all_  of us suck at analytic geometry. We wouldn't have to keep hiring and firing computers if we were competent enough to get the job done, ourselves. But the reason why Oikawa is the most....butthurt about the topic is because that's where Iwaizumi surpassed him."

"Whoa. Wait a sec." You cross your arms to form an X for emphasis. "The last I've heard of Mr. Iwaizumi in your story is that he got shipped off to God-knows-where to study law. And now you tell me he outshone Oikawa in his own game?”

He sinks further into his seat and drags a palm over his face. "That's where the conflict that I thought would be left in the past got rekindled. We never heard another word from Iwaizumi ever since he and Oikawa fought the day before his departure. Hanamaki and I have tried reaching out to him, even if Oikawa didn't want us to, but to no avail. So that time, all we knew about Iwaizumi was that he was studying to become a political scientist halfway across the planet. But then a couple years later, he showed up at NASA with all his credentials transcending Oikawa's by a long shot. He has degrees in both Astronomy and Aerospace Engineering. That one friend who never expressed passion for the cosmos ended up being the one that's most educated about it. Weird, huh?"

You begin to shift uncomfortably in your seat. The way Mattsun is speaking about this sounds so constrained, and it feels like something you're better off clueless about. It never really occurred to you that the four of them have deeper ties than they let on. You simply assumed that all their years together in the Space Task Group must've solidified their synergy better. But there's a melancholic ring to Mattsun's words, and you keep your silence so he would continue. 

"Shit all began to go down by then. Remember when I told you that Mr. Irihata was supposed to make Oikawa his successor?"

You nod. "I figure that Mr. Iwaizumi got the job instead?"

"Precisely," he groans with a dramatic hand gesture.

"I still don't get it though," you tell him, rather downcast, yourself. "I understand that he had the job that was meant for him snatched out of his fingers by his childhood friend, but what does it have to do with me? It's not like I personally orchestrated Mr. Iwaizumi's actions to ruin Mr. Oikawa's hopes and dreams."

Mattsun's sullen expression dissolves into a fit of laughter. 

"O-Oi, what's so funny?"

"Man. What they say about you geniuses is true," Mattsun apprises. "You can work with all the numbers shoved onto your plates, but you won't see other people's feeling's even if they're staring you dead in the eye."

"Name _one_ person who said that in the same way you just did!"

When Mattsun calms down, he apologizes profusely, but you know better than to think he's sincere. His giggling has died, but the conceited smile on his face is still brimming with life.

"Are you going to tell me why Mr. Oikawa hates me so much, now?" You glare at him, arms crossed.

He raises both of his hands in surrender. "Why Oikawa dislikes you, I expected you would've figured out by now. I have."

"What are you talking about, Mattsun? I can't think of a single reason why he'd hate me. I've been so freaking nice to the guy!"

This time, he manages to stifle his laughter. "Okay, let me put it simply. If your best friend that disappeared for years without another word waltzed back into your life to take away everything you've worked so hard for, how would you feel?"

"....Betrayed?"

"Yes. And now that you've finally restored your pride, another prodigy comes into the picture and threatens to do the very same thing again. How would you feel now?"

A thick silence envelops the two of you. Outside, the breeze is gliding idly by, and it seems that the cicadas have went to bed, too. There's only you, Mattsun, and a realization that's only surfaced in your mind.

" _No_ ," you tell him firmly.

"'No' is not a valid feeling, you know."

"Oikawa is _not_ jealous of me."

"Your words, not mine."

"Mattsun."

"Hey, it's getting a little late. I'll go on and drive you home now, I guess."

" _Mattsun_."

"We still have work tomorrow. A good night's sleep is a must."

" _Mattsun!_ "

He laughs for what seems like the millionth time tonight, and pats your head. "Forgive me. I haven't had a conversation this invigorating in a while. Everyone in the office is just so lackluster."

"Am I supposed to be flattered?"

He shrugs before turning the key to his car. He rolls up this window and spares you a glance. "Take it as you want. But really, let's go home. If I stay awake any longer I might just drive us off a cliff."

An impetuous remark melts on your tongue. Tomorrow, there'll more time to badger Mattsun about the enigma that is your boss. So you roll up your window, bidding a silent farewell to the evening breeze. As Mattsun speeds through the almost empty freeway, you find yourself thinking of where it all went wrong for a certain Mr. Oikawa.

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo this is just the first part. Not much interaction with you and oikawa, but i've built up the foundations i wanted to make :3 ~~also im supposed to focus on my kuroo story but this just came up on a whim so please bear with my sentimental ass~~ The second part will feature: ushijima in *exaggerated font* SPACE, emotional-kawa, matchmaker!mattsun, and picking up the shards of a broken friendship.


End file.
